Secretary Foxx’s Advice to Mayors: Get to Know Your Member of Congress
WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx told mayors from around the country that if they are looking to advance public works projects in their municipalities that help trucking and other sectors, they need the support from their members of Congress
“My feeling is, first of all, you have to be really clear with your leaders here in Washington, your House members, your senators, about what your vision is. You also need to be clear about why that vision isn’t happening right now,” said Foxx, speaking at the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ meeting here Jan. 23.
The secretary stressed that Congress plays a major role when it comes to funding infrastructure programs, and he urged the mayors — from Pittsburgh to St. Petersburg, Florida — to keep pressing federal lawmakers so they approve a multiyear funding plan for the Highway Trust Fund account. Doing so, Foxx said, would help them “create jobs and move us into the 21st century.”
Foxx was elected mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2009. He helped lead the city’s development of a major transit system in the downtown area and enhanced public works projects. Foxx also was active with the U.S. Conference of Mayors, serving as chairman of a task force focused on attracting manufacturing jobs to cities. He earned praise from the Obama camp after his city hosted the 2012 Democratic National Convention.
The U.S. Department of Transportation relies on the trust fund to assist cities and states in paying for big-ticket highway projects. Its funding is projected to run out when the authority of a 2012 transportation law expires in May.
